Special time to think, study, create, write...at the 2030 Iowa Retreats.

2030 Iowa Retreats bring the young clergy together - daycare provided for the children.

Let there be Peace

And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host, praising God and saying,

“Glory to God in the highest heaven,

and on earth peace,

good will among people.”

You and I are not the first to notice, of course, that “peace” is at best spread unevenly across the earth. But the God who would deign to come among humankind in so inauspicious a form as an infant surely knows this.

The premise of God’s incarnation is not one of magical reparation. The God whose angels sang so spectacularly that night is assuredly not blind to the realities of intransigent evil. This hymn is, I suppose, a tenderly contrarian word from the God who prefers subtlety and surprise and weakness over the exercise of force and violence. It is an invitation to imagine the ridiculous…the absurd….yes…the “impossible.”

My prayer and that of the entire staff of the Iowa Conference is that you will (if necessary) stumble into God’s peace and be so awed by the reality thereof that you will share this Good News with all you know and meet.

Christmas blessings of joy and peace to you and those you love and best wishes for a New Year of grace and hope.

Rich Pleva
for the entire Staff of the
Iowa Conference
United Church of Christ